Month: October 2015

I hate outlining. I hate it so very much. i’m not good at it. I’ve never been able to wrap my head around it. When I had to write papers in high school I never used an outline and I always did really well. Especially on Fiction. When an outline was required I would make one up and turn it in.

Now, as an adult, the way I do outlines would make my High School teachers cry. It’s not consistent throughout the outline and it’s not always the

I.

A.

1.

format. I don’t even know how you write clear ideas like that. My brain just doesn’t work in a logical line I guess.

My outlines look more like:

Chapter One-Important Points:

-introduce town

-introduce main char.

-sees meteor/meets oracle

*oracle description:

Kind of just basic references.

Outlining just about bores me to tears. If I have a clear vision of what i want to write then I want to *write* it. I don’t want to write about writing it.

BUT-I know that I have to for NaNoWriMo. If I want to write 2000-5000 words a day I need to have a vision of each plot point ahead of time if I’m going to avoid getting stuck. I will, in all likely hood, not follow my outline. When NaNoWriMo starts I will probably not even look at it. Because the characters take me where they want.

But I have (begrudgingly) found that at least writing the outline-whether or not it gets used-puts enough ideas into my subconscious to roll around and work on while i’m doing other things or working on other parts of the story.

The first year I did NaNo i had an outline. I didn’t look at it but I had it and I won. Last year I did not have an outline and I stopped about 70 pages in.

So that’s what I’m going to be doing today. I’m going to hate it. A lot. But I guess you do what you have to.

Do you outline? What do your outlines look like? What do you do to prep for November?

(My cat is a goofball)

For motivation you won’t find on my blogs don’t forget to like my Facebook page

It is October tenth and that November first deadline is coming closer and closer. I know in the next couple of weeks I will be stocking up on bottled water, chocolate (yay after Halloween sales) and energy drinks because I will be getting up an hour early to get writing done before work every day. I have a binder with notes in it, pieces of dialogue I may want to use and major plot points that have to happen to set up the entire series. What are you doing to prep?

I know that as the deadline comes closer, if you haven’t written a novel before or you’ve never attempted to write 50,000 words in 30 days (i will be aiming for 75,000-100,000) that deadline can suddenly seem imposing. But fear not! That’s where i come in:

First thing you should do is make sure you register your novel. You can earn badges, join member boards, get prep talks from some amazing authors. Seeing that chart go up every day saying you are on goal is a great way to keep yourself going. And you can enter to win a professional cover designed of your book.

31 days of NaNo prep prompts. Every day she asks you to imagine things like what your protagonist hates and why. What are going to be the major themes of your story. If you aren’t sure what your story is going to be about or you want to get a clearer vision of your characters and plot using these prompts could be a great way to help.

Scroll down to the bottom of the page or click the tags to get the whole connection.

This is my Facebook author page. I am going to be posting tip prep, stuff I do to prep and writing prompts to get you started throughout October and motivation to keep you going through November. I’ll also be posting my own daily word count and excerpts from what I’ve written. Go give it a like!

There are tons of ways to prep. Remember that there is no good or bad way to prepare. The only way you can fail is to not try at all. Even if you don’t make your 50,000 words (it’s not an easy goal especially with work and kids and significant others and days where you have no idea what you are going to do next) you can at least develop a habit of writing every day. Then, after NaNoWriMo is over, you can keep writing and keep writing and keep writing and someday you will have a finished book.